


(Not) Lost in the Woods

by ArtjuiceRP, Hawkeye733



Series: Scenes You'd Like to See [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: F/M, Tumblr Prompt, it's a complicated relationship, silliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 05:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4127449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtjuiceRP/pseuds/ArtjuiceRP, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkeye733/pseuds/Hawkeye733
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a Tumblr prompt: Both lost on separate hikes and meeting in the woods</p>
<p>Set in the event that the Warden refuses to recruit Nathaniel and he leaves the Keep, before turning around and coming back to find them.</p>
<p>Scenes You'd Like to See is the result of ArtjuiceRP and Hawkeye733 being terrible influences on each other and asking for prompts</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Not) Lost in the Woods

Nathaniel had been pretty certain that Vigil’s Keep was back along this way, or it had been. Or should be. He searched the trail for the path he recognised but was growing increasingly worried with his complete failure to recognise  _anything_. Or see the sun through the thick tree canopy above him, meaning he wasn’t even completely sure he was still heading east. But he was certain he was close. **  
**

And two hours later, as he retraced his steps along the riverbank where he  _knew_  the path led from, although it was being elusive at the moment, he was still certain. If slightly hungry. He would have dinner when he made it home though.

“You look rather out of your comfort zone out here.” The sudden voice made him jump around and stare into the trees behind him. He had been alone before and he hadn’t heard anyone approach. Piercing the gloom in the deep woods, he couldn’t see the source anywhere and began to wonder if he had imagined it.

The acorn that narrowly missed his head told him otherwise, followed by the next one that did not miss.

He looked up, startled to see a woman with white blonde hair casually perched in one of the branches above him, her mossy green clothes meant she blended quite effortlessly into her surroundings. At least more successfully than the amount of bare skin on display. A number of comments rushed through his head at her sudden appearance and instead of the witty comment he wanted to make in response to her smug tone, only one response came to him.

“I’m not lost!”

“Of course not. You always walk the same riverbank thirty times in a row.” She smirked to herself and Nathaniel frowned, looking down at the muddy track he had worn into the wet bank.

“How long have you been there?” He mumbled quietly, half hoping the woman wouldn’t hear him/

“Oh, I saw it all, don’t worry” she said with a nonchalant brush of something from her knee. As Nathaniel wordlessly struggled to think of a way to save face, the woman flipped from the branch she perched on and seemed to…glide down to the ground. It was only as she reached the ground and the tree branches that had bore her receded back to their positions on the trunk that Nathaniel even noticed they had become elongated.

_A mage,_ he realised and as he caught sight of her face clearly for the first time he also notice the tattoos sprawled across her features, as well as her rather large ears. And an elf. This was going to go well.

And because his brain and his mouth were not cooperating today, “You’re an apostate.” He really didn’t mean it to sound so accusing but then again, he was accusing her. She threw him what he felt was actually a well deserved look of disdain and rolled her eyes.

“Oh so  _that’s_ what this is all about?” Suddenly she threw her arms out at him and suddenly vines shot from the ground around Nathaniel, writhing in front of his face before retreating with a slithering sound. When he drew his arms down from where he had flung them around his head in a defensive crouch, he found the elf grinning in satisfaction. “Thanks for clearing that up for me.”

He drew himself up to his full height again and glared. “Now look, I’m just trying to have a leisurely walk here, I did not come to be assaulted by wild elf maidens.”

“Oh maiden now, is it? I am nothing like one of your feeble Shemlen maidens,” she said with a sneer.

“No, I didn’t mean that, I meant-  _Leave me alone!_ ” He cried out when suddenly the block of earth he was standing on dropped perilously beneath him, taking him closer to the level of the stream. She laughed at his yelped reaction but said nothing. The water started to lap gently over his boots. “What do you want?” He finally asked, sullenly lifting his feet from the stream bed and stepping back out onto the relatively drier mud bank.

“Who said I want anything? I simply thought you looked particularly pathetic from up there.” She replied, looking him up and down once more, making Nathaniel more aware of the state of his clothes, now covered in wet dirt in addition to the twigs and leaves he had accumulated after a day spent battling through undergrowth that perhaps did not strictly constitute a path.

“You don’t seem to have offered me much aid.”

“And I did not say I intended to. In fact, you have already given me more entertainment than I’ve enjoyed in days.”

“Well, I’m glad I could be of service,” He answered bitterly, “Now if you don’t mind, I have to be on my way. I’ll be late for supper at this rate.”

He turned away from her and once again looked at the lack of path ahead of him. A Keep is surely too large a thing to misplace.

“I think you’re going to be very late for supper if you’re heading out from here.” Her voice called out from behind him and he tried to shrug it off, then he registered her words.

“And what does that mean?” He turned back around to face her. She raised her eyebrows in amusement and he quickly smoothed the scowl from his face.

“I mean, out here you’re three days walk from any Shem holdings.” She said and he scoffed. That couldn’t be right. He had only been a day’s walk from Vigil’s Keep before he decided to turn back this morning. She was lying, clearly.

“Oh really. Well then what are you doing out here?” He regretted the words even as he said them.

“I said  _Shem_ towns, fool. Or did your keen powers of observation also fail to reveal I am Dalish?” He scowled and turned away again.

“I don’t need this.” He made for what appeared to be a small break in the bushes, on the other side of the stream.

“I wouldn’t go that way.” Her voice came back to him again and he huffed in impatience.

“And why not?”

“Well you could but you don’t look very equipped to take on a bear. Wait, actually, keep going.” She encouraged him onwards with a gesture of her hand and he pointedly turned on his heel and brushed straight past her, going in the opposite direction. “I thought you were going that way.” She asked and he hunched his shoulders, brought to another halt.

“I’m not lost!” He repeats himself without thinking and she chuckles again. “Fine, which way would you suggest.”

“I don’t even know where you intend to go, never mind having any intention to help.” She smirked and folded her arms across her chest. Nathaniel muttered under his breath and watched as the elf’s smile grew wider.

“Then, would you at least tell me which way you are going?” He asked her, hoping that at least then he might be able to get his bearings and as he looked at her expectantly he saw her slight stumble, the hesitation as she avoided his eyes.

“Oh sure, so I can lead you straight to a Dalish clan for you to hunt down.” She said, and her accusation stung but it was too late.

“You don’t know.” he said, almost incredulously and she frowned, immediately reaching to brandish her staff warningly. “Oh, don’t bother.”

“I’m not lost!” She said and it was his turn to grin at her defensive words

“Look, mage, I’m not in a position to judge.”

“So you’re admitting you  _are_ lost.” She immediately jumped on his disclosure and he frowned quickly, the smile slipping.

“…Let’s not speak of this again.”  
  
“I pray to the Creators that I never see you after this day.”

“Same here, only- the Maker. Oh, you know.”

He waved a hand and turned around once more, glancing up at the sky to see the tree canopy still blocked his view. He looked over his shoulder and quietly asked, “East?”

She pointed upstream and with a small nod, he set off, a defeated slump in his step.

>>><<>><<>><<>><<<

A few days later, after he had been found - or rather he had tracked down the Warden Commander and her small team, he was relaxing in the Keep when a loud noise announced the return of the hunting party. As he was now the newest Warden he had been left out of the most recent quest, still recovering from the Joining ritual as they heard news of a supply caravan not reaching it’s destination.

The doors to the main hall opened and the Warden reappeared with her ragtag team of two dwarves and an apostate. And one other person. An elf with white blonde hair and an unusually revealing green garb. As their eyes met across the hall and Nathaniel registered the Warden’s shout for Seneschal Varel to ready the Joining ritual, he realised what was about to happen. This Velanna, apparently, was to become his new comrade in arms.

Could she not have just stayed lost?

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine this could be the start of a beautiful romance, a grudging friendship, or anything you really want. But i don't think their first meeting went well.


End file.
